Europeans Hail Move Toward Unity Summit At Mastricht Seen As Turning Point

December 12, 1991|By ALAN RIDING, The New York Times

MAASTRICHT, the Netherlands -- After the deadlocks, squabbles and veto threats that frequently marred their negotiations, European Community leaders returned home on Wednesday confident that their two-day summit meeting in Maastricht would be remembered as a turning point in the region`s decades-old integration process.

At first sight, it might seem more out of political necessity than outright conviction that all 12 leaders cheerfully asserted on Wednesday that they had achieved their main objectives, not least because France and Germany were aiming to speed regional unity while Britain was intent on slowing it.

Yet despite Britain`s frequent isolation from its partners, despite the compromises needed to prevent a breakdown in the talks, in the end they agreed on a treaty that commits the 12 member countries to monetary union by the end of the century and for the first time gives the community a clear political profile.

French President Francois Mitterrand described the agreement as the most important in Europe since the 1957 Treaty of Rome created a common market.

``A great power is being born, one at least as strong commercially, industrially and financially as the United States and Japan,`` he said.

German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said he was sure a federally structured Europe was in the making.

British Prime Minister John Major seemed more pleased that he had kept his word to his Conservative Party colleagues by not making concessions in key areas. But he too noted of the treaty: ``It advances the interests of Europe as a whole. It opens up new ways of cooperating in Europe.``

The new treaty is still only a blueprint, yet it represents an approach that has worked before: with Britain ever reticent, France and Germany persuaded the community to set itself ambitious goals and even target dates with the hope that, in time, Britain would come around to accepting them.

Certainly, this is what happened after the community`s last ``great leap forward`` in 1985. Only at the last moment did Margaret Thatcher, who was then British prime minister, endorse the decision to form a single regional market after 1992. Today, Britain is enthusiastically building what will become the world`s largest trading bloc.

Indeed, it was confidence in well-advanced plans for the single market -- and the need to compete with the U.S. and Japan -- that led many community governments to support still greater economic unity by committing themselves this week to create a single currency and a regional central bank no later than 1999.

Britain was again the odd man out, insisting on an ``opt-out`` protocol that allows its Parliament to decide at a later date whether to replace the pound with what will become known as the ECU, or European Currency Unit. Yet many experts think Britain will eventually accept the plan.

More important, though, is that Germany agreed in principle to abandon the mark, which is Europe`s dominant currency, if a series of strict economic performance targets are met by community members. And German participation in a single currency will irrevocably transform Europe`s financial scene.